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Mission Statement:
To promote multi-religious peace building and to empower people and communities around the world through creative and hopeful approaches to intolerance and conflict. The corporation is grounded in compassion, respect for diversity and sensitivity to the natural environment and is committed to protecting human rights, freedom and justice for all people.
Brief History:
Seven Stones was officially incorporated as a non-profit in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in April of 2008. After conducting extensive research and independently organizing programs in Ukraine on diversity and multi-ethnic awareness, Michelle decided it would be most beneficial to operate form an organization rather than in a vacuum. She took the opportunity to combine many of her passions and pre-existing activities under the umbrella of Seven Stones. Some of these include administering an online, international non-denominational prayer group, running multi-faith retreats in nature and working with students on leadership skills and diversity training and awareness in Ukraine. Our mission is intentionally broad and has room to adapt to a plethora of settings and situations, all the while remaining true to our core values, methods and goals. Currently much of our work is focused in Ukraine and in the United States, but we are in the process of developing programs in Romania and elsewhere in the region.
Why “Seven Stones”?
The name “Seven Stones” has a number of symbolic meanings. First of all the number seven is a sacred number in the Jewish religion (among others), which has meaning for Michelle. Also, because our work is worldwide, we recognize seven continents and seven seas. Finally, we chose stones because they are connected to the earth and are universal, found in cities, in the wilderness, in forests, deserts, oceans, mountains, etc. They are even found in space. Perhaps you can think of other meanings – we’d be happy to know what “seven stones” means to you!
Influences and role models:
Much of our methodology and philosophy is inspired by Outward Bound International (link: http://www.outward-bound.org/about_sub1_mission.htm). The belief that people are generally capable of much more than they realize, and the undying commitment to service coupled with a strong sense of moral courage are tenants to which we also ascribe. Learning and growing through various types of challenging situations (“Challenge by Choice”), together with learning to support and be supported by others are also powerful and important models which we use in our programs.
We are also influenced by the Harvard Mediation Program (link: http://www.pon.harvard.edu/education/hmp.php) and the facilitation and listening skills that they employ to assist mediators and parties in conflict to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others with different perspectives.
The multi-faith and pluralistic atmosphere at Harvard Divinity School (link: http://www.hds.harvard.edu/spiritual/index.html) has provided much grounding and spiritual basis for the work that we do. By creating a meaningful and supportive atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance among people of very different paths and backgrounds, we are able to transcend those differences and engage at a universal human level.
Direction:
Currently our work is mainly in Ukraine and in the USA. In Ukraine we are working on increasing awareness of and sensitivity to ethnic and religious diversity in the country. We are also addressing issues of concern to international students residing in the country, particularly students of color. Finally, we also focus on gender issues and relations in the country. Our work takes the form of meetings and discussion groups as well as short 1-2 day courses and workshops, and longer 10 day summer programs.
In the USA, we are working on developing dialogue between Jews and Ukrainians, mainly in the Boston area. We also run interfaith retreats based in natural and serene settings that allow participants an opportunity for self-reflection as well as dialogue and connection with others.
Internationally and ongoing is our non-denominational, online prayer group. This email based group is open to anyone of any religious, or non-religious background. It serves as a cyber community of people who wish to share thoughts and prayers and to listen to those of other members. There is no obligation to contribute and level of involvement is totally voluntary.
In the future, we hope to expand our interfaith programs in the States, and to do more spiritually based work in Ukraine as well, focusing particularly on Jewish-Christian relations and the historical challenges still affecting the communities today. In addition to our work in Ukraine and in the US, we are open to exploring new geographic and thematic areas of focus, as needs present themselves.